The Perks of Living in the 21st Century
by The Melting Candle
Summary: To Nico nothing in the 21st century makes any sense, he feels alone and misses his past life. But a certain son of Apollo will change his mind. SOLANGELO one-shot


**An- Solangelo is life, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer- I don't own Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus or any of the characters.**

Nico was almost completely clueless when it came to the 21st century. For the last few years of his life he had been bouncing between the Underworld, Camp Half-Blood, Camp Jupiter, some places that he wanted to forget (cough Tartarus cough), foreign countries through shadow travel, and the Underworld. He knew vaguely what it was like, but actually interacting with the modern world was not one of his talents, at all.

His dad thought that he was being too reclusive from everyone and needed to get out in the world more, this roughly meant that he was sick of Nico constantly being in the Underworld and wanted some time alone with Persephone. His attempts to get Nico out into the world included of course giving him a zombie chauffer, as no teenage life is complete without one.

Nothing really made sense to him, cell phones, computers, modern transportation, television, movies (for the ones he'd seen he liked but it completely boggled him about how they were made), and about a million other things. Hence why he didn't spend that much time in places populated by a lot of people.

He missed the 1930s and his old life with his mom and Bianca. They had a smaller house in Venice for most of his life. The city was beautiful and while he didn't have many friends of his own because of the fact that he had been there for only seven years, Bianca's friends would always treat him like a brother. Their mom, Maria, was amazing, she was always kind and fun with them, even though she had to raise them on their own she was happy. He loved spending holidays and birthdays and pretty much everyday with them. All the details, the songs in Italian they listened to on records, the slightly stale birthday cakes, his sister walking him to school when he was in kindergarten, everything.

He even missed when he lived in America for three years when the Nazis were coming to Venice and their neighbors were threatening to turn Nico in. His family and him were terrified and Maria prayed to Hades to help them, in response he sent them from hotel to hotel across the country, Nico didn't remember anything from that, he only knew that Hades was doing it to keep them safe from the other gods, in retrospect one of his more fatherly moments.

Mainly he just missed the time when it didn't hurt for them to smile.

But that life was gone and now he was stuck in the 21st century, not only did almost none of the new technology make sense to him but the new American culture was just...weird. The new music was so different from the Italian and old American music he grew up with. He found he did like heavy metal and alternative music but mostly all the mainstream music that some people introduced him to was well... weird. The new clothing style had taken some getting use to and though he didn't show it he was really uncomfortable when girls wore a very little amount of clothing and guys wore their pants on their ankles (okay, he was actually kind of please about that) but he was fazed by it none the less. So he didn't exactly spend time in anyplace where there was an overload of modern culture.

That is until he started dating Will Solace.

Well, dating was a strong word, at least for Nico. They had known each other for about a year since the final battle against Gaea. There had been a very strong mutual attraction but they didn't say they were in a relationship or did anything very relationshippy. They did constantly hang out, Nico would be a lot more comfortable when Will touched him (not in that way) and everyone at the camp just knew.

The thing that really surprised and pleased Nico was that even though all his friends that he didn't claim to have assured him that hey cared about him, Will went out of his way to make sure that Nico knew that he cared. And he was really good at making Nico happy. When Nico had been stuck in the infirmary for three days (though Will expanded it to five for 'medical reasons') he had found himself actually smiling, and he did so naturally that it only barely hurt is face. He never thought that he would get along with someone as bright and happy as Will but he couldn't help it.

And so one day during winter they were walking to a coffee shop not far from the camp. Will had conveniently forgotten his gloves and insisted on holding hands with Nico, an action he found himself uncharacteristically willing to do. They walked down the New York street next to all the shops and the street over crowded with cars. He was worried about the stares they might attract if people saw them holding hands. While he usually never worried about what people thought about him, but this was a part of his identity that he was subconscious about. It wasn't because of Will, he was happy that Will was with him, it was the things he had experienced in his youth that put a worry on his mind. Will was aware of this, he had learned to read Nico pretty well over the years but he knew that Nico just needed to get used to the time period.

They stopped at a coffee shop, Nico had learned to really like coffee since Will showed it to him when he had shown him around the city for the first time. Even though coffee had been around since America began Nico hadn't actually every had any ever. But he liked it a lot when he had tried it to the delight of Will, who was a coffee fanatic. They found warmth inside and in a mutual unwillingness they let go of each other's hands. They ordered the coffee, the woman at the front smiled at them, causing Nico to blush.

In a few minutes they picked up their coffee, Will started insisting that they sit outside, where it had started to snow.

"Aren't you like allergic to the cold?" asked Nico.

"As far as I know you have never drank coffee while sitting in snow." said Will.

"No, strangely that exciting experience hasn't reached my bucket list yet." Nico said.

"Come on, let's sit outside." Will begged, Nico found it cute of how much like a little kid he could be sometimes.

"It's freezing out there and the-"

"Doctors orders." Nico started to walk out the door.

Will led them outside to a table with chairs that had the least amount of snow on them. They sat down and Will immediately grabbed Nico's hand. Nico beamed on the inside.

He looked around the tables, one table had a couple of teenage girls laughing, another had an older woman sitting by herself, another had an older couple, a married man and woman by their rings, another had a pair of collage girls. They were laughing and to Nico's surprise they were sitting very close to one another, eventually the girl on the left kissed the other's cheek. Nico was shocked, he looked around to the other tables, and no one even looked in their direction. A rush of joyous feelings came over Nico and a smile overpowered his face.

"What's wrong?" asked Will.

"Nothing." Nico took off his left glove and put it on the table, he put his bare and in Will's left hand. Will's eye's widened and then he smiled a big, goofy grin. They sat and drank their coffee slowly for the next fifteen minutes.

When they were done Nico summoned Jules-Albert and they climbed into his car to get back to camp. They sat in the backseat, looked out separate windows, blushing like crazy and still holding hands regardless of how warm the car was. Will was wearing Nico's other glove on his right hand now.

They got to camp in about fifteen minutes, separating their hands as they entered through the barrier. Will followed Nico to his cabin.

"I'm glad you've adjusted," he said quietly to Nico.

Nico grinned, "Yeah, you could say that." Will rolled his eyes and began to walk to the Apollo cabin. Nico grabbed his wrist in a crazy last minute though. He pulled Will towards him and got up on his tiptoes. He kissed him, so happy, so, so, so happy. The both of them.

Maybe everything was confusing to him, maybe he missed his old life, but at this moment he knew for a fact that he was meant to live at this time. He knew he was supposed to exist right now with Will Solace.


End file.
